Online Garden Seed Resources

Today we are going to talk about seeds! Vegetable, fruit, and flower seeds to be specific. Starting most plants from seeds is not difficult, it just takes some time and a bit of care.

Before I go on, if you are interested in learning more about starting seeds inside, you can see my post about that - Seed Starting Indoors 101. Or if you want to try starting seeds early outdoors with mini diy greenhouses, you can see the Let's Go Hobby post on Winter Sowing.

Onto the seeds. So, how about all those terms you hear about or see on seeds packages like heirloom, organic, hybrid, or GMO? What do these terms really mean? Let's break it down:

Heirloom Seeds - Seeds taken from plants that have been passed down from generation to generation. They have not been purposefully modified in any way and are stable. Meaning, that you can collect the seeds of the plant and grow the exact same plant again. These seeds can also be referred to as open pollinating. Heirloom seeds must from suppliers, must have had cross-pollinating plants grown a certain distance away from plants of the same type (i.e. they can't grow two varieties of corn right next to each other) in order to result in the same variety being produced from the seed.

Organic Seeds - Seeds from plants that were grown using organic methods. No harsh chemical pesticides or genetically modified plants. Seeds labeled as "organic" have to be certified (and pay for that certification). So, sometimes plants are grown in an organic way, but because the farm hasn't been certified, it will not be labeled as such.

Hybrid Seeds - Seeds from plants of the same species that were crossbred on purpose or by chance. If seeds are listed as "hybrid" then they were modified purposefully for better characteristics (disease prevention, frost tolerance, earlier fruiting, etc.).  These are not genetically modified and not harmful at all. However, if you try to save the seeds, you may get something different than what you started with. One year I saved seeds from a spaghetti squash and upon planting those seeds next year, was surprised to find something resembling a zucchini spaghetti plant that never quite ripened. Maybe something like this has happened to you!  By the way, according to the National Garden Association, "Beets, brassicas, carrots, corn and squash are cross-pollinating, and so require isolation in the field to keep varieties true. Beans, lettuce, peas and tomatoes are self-pollinating, do not require isolation and are the easiest for seed-saving home gardeners to sustain year to year." This is great information for seed saving. I actually did save beet and carrot seeds last year, it will be interesting to see if the new plants end up looking the same next year!

GMO Seeds - Seeds purposefully modified in a lab setting to garner sought after characteristics. GMO seeds are not readily available to the home grower. These seeds are marketed to large scale farmers. 

Okay, so once you decide what types of seeds you are interested in buying, you will then have to decide which seeds you want. Of course, the what variety of seeds you buy is largely dependent on climate you live in, individual tastes you are catering too, and perhaps - whims! I mean, who knows when the desire to try bright red carrots or yellow tomatoes will hit you! I will say, there is sometimes merit to buying seeds locally since smaller nurseries will sometimes carry local seeds that do better in the specific climate you live in. In my experience though, unless  you live near a special seed supplier, most nurseries selections are lacking. And if you are looking for heirloom or organic seeds, they are in limited supply.



Here's a short list of seed suppliers. Which one you choose, will depend on your interests so I've included a small snippet about each link.

In alphabetical order:

Baker Creek Seeds (aka Rare Seeds) - A large variety  of heirloom seeds with many rare cultivars. Not certified organic, but most seeds are probably grown organically. They send out a basic free catalog each year if requested (which can also be viewed online). They also have a more in depth catalog with lots of fun stories, historical facts, and interesting pictures that may be sent free with a large order the previous year. Otherwise, it's available in the magazine section at many stores in the US. This is one of my favorites.

Burpee - A large commercial type seed supplier. Sells a mix of , heirloom, organic, and hybrid seeds as well as gardening supplies.

Fedco Seeds - Mostly certified organic seeds. Sells in small quantities, but also bulk for the small farmer.

Fruition Seeds - Organic seeds which are marketed as "seeds from the Northeast." Located in New York, they carry varieties that are better suited to shorter warm seasons and harsher winter conditions.

Hawthorne Farm - Organic seed supplier out of Ontario, Canada. Only ships to Canada.

High Mowing Seeds - Organic seed company out of Vermont. Ships to USA and Canada. Good variety of seeds common and rare. Largest variety of cover crops I've come across.

Johnny's Selected Seeds - Offers a good variety of organic, hybrid, and heirloom seeds. Operates out of Maine and will ship to  the US, Canada, and internationally where permissible.

Park Seed - Large scale commercial seed supplier out of South Carolina. Sells heirloom, organic, and hybrid seeds plus gardening supplies.

Seed Savers Exchange - A non-profit company out of Iowa that is dedicated to saving heirloom and open pollinated seeds (some are organic as well). They grow, save, and preserve seeds as well as distribute the seeds so that home growers can enjoy them and keep the seeds alive. As the name suggests, there is also a seed exchange program that anyone can participate in.

Tomato Fest - It's all about organic heirloom tomatoes from this supplier. A wide variety of different and fun tomatoes from a husband and wife team. They also have tomato and tomato/flower seed collections which could be fun.



Ah, I  almost forgot to mention the Let's Go Hobby post about seed storage and organization, you can see that post HERE.

2019 Garden

Here's to a great seed starting year for us all! 

Happy Gardening!

How to Make Compost Tea

Today I'll show you how to make tea. For plants, not people. Compost tea to be exact. The batch I'll show you here is small, it's for my grow light seedlings (tomatoes and peppers mostly). You could do this same thing on a larger scale for the garden outside.

The word compost probably means a lot of different things depending on who you ask. You could definitely go out to your compost pile and use this method with that type of compost. What I used this time, was actually an organic pre-made fertilizer which contains ingredients like blood meal, fish meal, and seaweed. It smells lovely. Anyway, the plants like it.

I started by putting some of the fertilizer in a square of cheese cloth. I wrapped it up and secured a rubber band around the top. I then put that in a container with some water and let it soak for 24 hours.

As far as how much compost and water to add, you might need to experiment depending on what type of compost you are using. Since I bought a pre-made fertilizer, it actually had instructions on bag that states the ratio to use. This is the kind I bought:

It's Dr. Earth brand. I actually used this fertilizer last year in the garden and really liked it. You can buy this kind on Amazon HERE. I bought it last year because of the awesome reviews it got.

Here are the instructions for the compost tea on the bag. Since I mixed this compost tea up to fertilize seedlings. I made the tea at half strength (1/2 cup fertilizer to a half a gallon of water).

This post contains affiliate links.

Since I put the fertilizer in the cheesecloth, I didn't need to strain it out before adding it to the plants. you could easily strain it instead of using cheesecloth, but this way is less messy.

Hope this post helps! Let me know if you have any questions or comments below.

Happy Gardening!

How to Plant Seeds Under Grow Lights, A Step-By-Step Tutorial

You can get a head start in your garden in late winter or early spring by planting seeds inside under grow lights or near a window. It's not too much work, and it's really cost effective in the long run. A seed packet generally costs $1-$4 and contains anywhere from 10 to 300 seeds. Whereas most plants at a nursery start at $2 and can get very expensive as they grow bigger or are heirloom. You do need a grow light if you plan to plant indoors and you don't have a room with great sunlight most of the day (I don't, and my kids would make a huge mess with the dirt).

 If you do plant indoors by windows, keep an eye on your seedlings to make sure they aren't getting leggy (long and spindly) and leaning one direction.

Source

The lights might be around $20, a stand is also $20. Or maybe you are crafty and thrifty and you can build your own stand and find a light on the cheap. I've had my light and stand for at least 5 years now and it's definitely paid for itself.

The other great thing about growing from seed, is that there are so many more cultivars out there than are probably at your local nursery or hardware garden area. I went a little crazy on tomatoes this year, but look how fun these varieties are! Sorry about the shine from the t5 light ;). If you can't see, I have:

• Blue Beauty
• Get Stuffed
• Amish Paste
• Kelogg's Breakfast
• Beefsteak
• Mortgage Lifter
• Raspberry Lyanna
• Tomato Isis Candy Cherry
• San Marzano Lungo No. 2
• Sweeties
• Romas
• Plus Pink Brandywines I saved last year (not pictured)

Apparently the gardener that invented the Mortgage Lifter Tomato literally "lifted" his mortgage back in the 1930s buy selling each tomato for $1. He sold tomatoes for 6 years and was able to pay off his $6000 mortgage (source). Wouldn't it be nice if mortgages were only $6000 these days (pretend inflation kept up with everything else)!

You probably just want to know how to plant seeds under lights (who cares how many seed packs this crazy tomato lady bought right?). On to it.

How to Plant Seeds Under Grow Lights

The following steps assume you already have a grow light. 

1. Set up your grow light. You want to put this in a place that's not too cold as warmer weather seeds need warmer temperatures to germinate (at least room temperature). If you have a grow light stand like mine that lowers and raises, you are ready to go from here. If you don't you will want to find a way to get your plants and light within inches of each other to start. As the seedlings grow, you will slowly raise the light to keep it just above the top of the plants. If your light is too high above the plants, they will become leggy and fall over. My seed magic happens in the furnace room. The floor is concrete, but it's warm in the room with the furnace and a refrigerator nearby.

Another option to help the seeds germinate faster and more uniformly, is to use a heat mat. I haven't used one myself, but it's a nice add to the seed starting set up.

2. Decide on your growing medium and containers. There are a ton of mediums and containers that seeds can be grown in. If you want to do it the easy way, you can buy the jiffy type seed starting trays with the peat pods that go in each spot. You just add water and the pods expand out and up. There is some controversy on whether or not peat is a sustainable medium. So, if you are wanting to be eco-friendly, using a sterile seed starting mix might be the way to go. You can use left over multi-planters bought at a store previously, or make your own newspaper planters. I've tried using toilet paper tubes, egg cartons, and various plastic food containers. The important part is that you use a medium that is sterile (not potting soil). You don't want a bunch of big sticks or gnat larva in your seed starting mix. If you use a sterile mix, fill the containers almost to the top, leaving about 1/4" head space.

These little yogurt containers are perfect.

3. Plant your seeds. Make sure your growing medium is wet, but not soggy before you plant. If you squeeze the medium and it drips, it's too wet.

You'll want to come up with a system to remember which seeds you planted where. I like to make a diagram like this one:

And just label it as I go. Other people like to use plant label sticks or colored tooth picks. Do what works for you. But make sure you do label or you'll most likely be smacking your forehead in two months from now.

I like to use the back of the pen I write with to push a little hole into each pod or planter and then drop 1-3 seeds inside. For most of my pods, I used 2 seeds. For seeds packs that I bought a few years prior, I added more seeds under the assumption that the viability of these seeds would be lower. If you have really expensive seeds like the Aji Charapita Pepper seeds that only have 10 in the whole pack ( $4.00), you might only want to put one seed in each hole since if two sprout, you do end up pinching one off. As far as depth, you'll want to follow the instructions on the seed package. If there is no information, the general rule of thumb is double the seed width. So if it's a tiny seed, plant it very close to the top of the soil. A large seed like a pea, plant it deeper.

After planting the seeds and covering them up, gently press down on the top of the soil to tamp the seed down. Then give each seed a light watering using a small container or spray bottle.


4. Cover the seed trays. While the seeds are germinating, you will need to put a cover over the seed containers. If you use a seed starting tray, it should come with a plastic cover. If not you could use another plastic top or even some plastic wrap to keep the seed trays evenly humid until the seedlings emerge. As soon as you see green, take the lids off.

Then lower your grow light to just above the seeds (or raise the seeds to just below the lights). Turn on your grow light and leave it on for 12-16 hours per day. A timer is at the plug is a great way to do this. Or you can, of course, manually turn the lights on and off each day. If you happen to forget to turn it on or off one or two times, the plants will survive. Just try not to make that a habit.


5. Fertilize your seedlings. After the true leaves appear (the first leaves that appear are called cotyledons, these are not the true leaves. The next leaves to appear are called "true leaves"), you can fertilize at 1/4 to 1/2 solution (as determined on instructions for fertilizer).

Now, how often, is up to you as well as which kind of fertilizer you use. Some sources say to fertilize twice a week, and other say once every two weeks. For many years, I didn't fertilized at all. I do, however, think that fertilizing your starts is a good idea. The plants will be bigger, stronger, and healthier when it's time to put them in the garden, which makes them less susceptible to pests and diseases.

The type of fertilizer is also a personal choice. If you want simple and cheap, buy a simple chemical liquid fertilizer like Miracle Grow. If you want to go more organic and sustainable, try a fish emulsion fertilizer (I guess they make ones that aren't as stinky too!) or a seaweed based fertilizer.

6. Transplant to larger containers. Once the plants have outgrown the first container (unless you planted in larger containers to begin with), you will need to transplant them to something where their roots can grow out and not become bound up. If you look on the under side of the container and a bunch of long roots are dangling out, you know it needs something bigger.

7. Harden the plants off. Once the weather is warm enough to transplant your beautiful homegrown plants, you will need to harden them off. You might be saying, hard what? That's just the term the gardening world uses to mean, get the plants used to being outside with wind and the strong sun and fluctuating temperatures. Your plants have been babied, it's time for them to grow up and see the world. Anyway, bring the plants outside a few hours each day starting in a slightly shady area and moving up to full sun. You can do this in a matter of days or a week or so. Be careful, because the soil will dry out a lot faster outside especially if the containers are small.

Also, when you move the plants outside, be sure to mark the front of the container if you have diagrammed them so you know which seeds are which when you bring them back in.

8. Transplant your plants to the garden. After the plants have been sufficiently hardened off, you can put them in the garden. Don't forget to check the frost date for your area if you are planting tender warm veggies like tomatoes and peppers.

That's it! I hope I gave you enough information to get started. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know below.

Happy Gardening!

All You Need to Know to Winter Sow

Did you think I misspelled sew? Actually, I'm not talking about sewing, but rather sowing! Because, guys...IT'S ALMOST HERE! Gardening season that is. I started winter sowing today. I'll show you how to do it.

First of all, what is winter sowing? This is sowing seeds when it's still winter time and too cold to plant seeds in the garden. You could also plant seeds under a cold frame or a big glass bowl if you wanted, but the method I'm referring to uses plastic containers like milk jugs and big plastic containers to create a miniature greenhouse.  Here's a picture of my mini greenhouses:

The idea is that keeping the soil warmer inside the containers allows the seeds to germinate earlier. I just have broccoli and kale planted in these three. You can do warmer weather vegetables in these too like tomatoes, but it's only February 17th, so they can wait since the soil temperature wouldn't get high enough for a while anyway. In general, these types of greenhouses will give you a month head start on the weather. If you put it out sooner, it won't hurt the seeds as long as you don't have a warm spell where the seeds are allowed to germinate, followed by a cold spell that dips below the seedlings temperature tolerance. This isn't likely to happen since at low temperatures, it takes a long time for the seeds to germinate.

I found a really neat chart that explains what soil temperature different vegetables will germinate at, and another chart that explains how long it will take to germinate certain seeds at various temperatures. This is from the University of California's Agricultural Extension. So, as you can see on the chart below, broccoli will germinate at 40 degrees (and since Kale and Broccoli are cousins, kale is the same). So, according to the second chart (and using cauliflower as a similar vegetable). Once the soil temperature in the jugs reaches 50 degrees, it should take about 20 days to see green inside!

Source

Source

Okay, enough nerdy scientific data, you want to know how to winter sow right?  So here are the steps:

1. Collect Containers

Milk jugs are great because they are readily available. Even if your family doesn't drink milk, chances are your neighbor or co-worker does. If they really like you, they might even agree to wash the milk jugs out and leave the lid off to let them dry before they give them to you! You can use other types of containers too though. A big plastic tub with a lid or I've even used a large baby green salad container (this I actually used to grow salad greens in). Or something like a large juice container would work too. You could use 2 liter soda bottles, but since they are tall in skinny, you would need to put them in something so they don't get knocked over.

2. Prepare the Containers

Firstly, no matter what type of container you are using, it will need drainage. You can use a box cutter, x-acto knife, or even a drill with a small bit to make the holes. There's not an exact right amount of holes to make, just make sure the water can drain out. For the milk jugs, I usually make 7-10 small holes in the bottom. 

Now, if you are using milk jugs or similar containers, you will need to cut them open somewhere near the middle in order to get the soil and seeds inside.I like to cut from the base of the handle all the way around back to the base of the handle on the other side like the picture shows below. That way it's easy to open it, but will also be easy to secure it closed in the later step. 

Next you need to fill the container with soil. You can use seedling starter soil, but from my research, it's better to use a potting soil that has more nutrients in it since the plants will be growing in these for a few months without much, or any amendments. The picture shows a cheap potting soil from Wal-Mart, thus the rocks and stones you see in here, but I think it will work fine.

If you are using a different type of container, just be sure to put enough soil in it so that it doesn't dry out too fast. These usually don't need to be watered much in the winter, but if you have a small amount of soil, you will be out with them more than you probably want to be. Also, they won't be as heavy, and might move around.

4. Plant the Seeds

For most milk jugs, I will plant 6-9 seeds depending on the type of plant. If you were doing very small flowers, then it would probably be better to broadcast the seeds across the top of the soil. But for most vegetables, you are just going to evenly space the seeds holes, and put a few seeds in each hole at the depth noted on the seed packet. 

Make sure to label each container as you go. It's okay to plant two different types of seeds into one container, just make sure to label it so that you know later.

5. Close up the Containers 

If your container has a built in lid, just put it on! You may need to leave it slightly off or add holes in the top so that water and air can get in, depending on what you are using. If you are using the milk jugs like me, then you just need to secure the cut portion with tape. Don't put the lid back on the top! That's where the snow and rain will come in. 

Then put them outside in a sunny spot. These are on the deck, they won't stay as warm because it's a deck, but it's really the best non-windy-close-to-the-door-spot I have. And they have worked fine there in the past!

That's really all there is too it! When it comes time to transplant them, take the lids off for a few days before you move them to let them harden off (if you are worried they will get shocked, you can still tape them up part of the day while you harden them off). Then just grab the chunk of the dirt that the plant is rooted in, and put that in the earth.

There's a really great winter sowing Facebook group if you want more information. Click HERE to go to the Facebook group page, it's a closed group, so you'll have to join to see posts.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments below! And happy gardening.